Chapter 46

Peach Tree

Not long after the letter from Tang Yingying, which stated that she and Zimei were like sisters, and the letter from the head of the Tang family were sent to the Zhuge family, a pale man was carried to the entrance of the Tang residence on a sedan chair, looking as if he had been thrown there.

“Gurgle...”

The moment he arrived, the man rolled out of the sedan chair and vomited everything inside him. He looked like a Taoist from a Chinese movie, and after vomiting for a long time in the courtyard, he eventually fainted and only regained consciousness after half a day.

It seemed he had been carried in the sedan chair by martial arts experts for swift delivery, but the motion sickness had been severe.

After fainting for half a day due to motion sickness, the Taoist, upon regaining consciousness, came to find me, asked my name, and recited the family relationships of the Zhuge family. Then, he led everyone from the Tang family to the shrine and began to pretend to perform divination.

After fiddling with something like a bagua for a while, the man suddenly shouted, “Excellent! It couldn’t be better!”

His face, which seemed to lack any mystical aura and looked even less impressive than the talismans I had written, did not seem to impress anyone, but the head of the Tang family seemed to think otherwise.

“Oh, so it’s that good?”

When the man said it was good, the head of the Tang family, who was my uncle by marriage, was delighted and handed him a few taels of silver. The fortune-teller became even more excited and started talking more, eventually making the uncle pull out a few more taels of silver from his pocket before stopping.

Then, the man and the martial artists from the Zhuge family quickly returned to the Zhuge family with a few boxes of gifts prepared by the Tang family.

The gifts we sent were not much.

It seemed the money the head of the Zhuge family had given to prepare the gifts included items like green and red silk and a few hairpins for Zimei.

About a fortnight later, a sedan chair arrived with a set of clothes and a fan.

The clothes looked like an official's robe made from the green silk we had sent, and the fan was the symbol of the Zhuge family, the White Crane Fan.

‘They sent clothes they made? This is like...’

But the White Crane Fan aside, something felt off about sending clothes they had made.

Sending silk and then having clothes made is something usually done at weddings, but the green clothes didn’t seem to fit that context... It started to feel a bit strange.

Because, in a wedding, the clothes should naturally be red, which the people of Central Plains consider auspicious. Since the clothes that arrived were green, it didn’t seem to fit a wedding context.

Green is a color that has nothing to do with weddings.

‘Maybe they just made me a set of clothes because I don’t have any, for me to wear at the ceremony?’

The people of the Tang family, who seemed to want to announce that they were dangerous individuals who used poison, preferred to wear green or red clothes. Since I was now part of the Tang family, it seemed they had chosen the color to match the Tang family’s style...

*Chuckle*

I once imagined getting married to Zimei or Tang Yingying.

‘Honey, be careful when you enter the formation. If you misstep, your soul might leave your body.’

‘Honey, I prepared a health drink for you in the morning, mixing the poison of scorpions, centipedes, and snakes. Drink it all up quickly.’

Life would surely be a daily struggle for survival.

Moreover, it was unrealistic to suddenly think about marriage.

Even if I had saved the life of their daughter, giving her to me as a reward was a story that only appeared in fairy tales. Would a top gangster of a region like the Zhuge family give his daughter to a lowly innkeeper?

Such fantasies were sick.

With the recent success and the connections I had made with the Tang and Zhuge families, it seemed my confidence had grown.

I even had such useless fantasies.

As I chuckled and came out of my fantasy, an elder from the Zhuge family started asking me something.

“Mr. Liu, two auspicious days have been chosen. Which one would you prefer? One is sooner, and the other is later.”

“Then let’s go with the sooner one. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

“Ha ha, if you say so, we will certainly hasten the preparations.”

I answered the elder’s question without hesitation.

There was no reason to think otherwise; the sooner date was obviously better.

While I was enjoying my days, the inn’s repairs were likely finished, and I needed to start business again and pay Galiani’s salary.

It would be very inconvenient to linger here for a few more months and then spend another one or two months at the Zhuge family.

The elder from the Zhuge family, smiling, asked another question after hearing my answer.

“Oh, and the head of our family said that doing everything our way would not be respectful to you. He asked if you have any preferences. Do you have any specific requests?”

Of course, I did.

The brotherhood ceremony is a dream for fans of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I naturally had a dream in my heart, and humans are creatures who dive into their dreams.

I asked the elder from the Zhuge family.

“By any chance, does the Zhuge family have a large peach tree?”

The elder from the Zhuge family nodded and smiled in response to my question.

“Of course. The Zhuge family, remembering the Peach Garden Oath of Lord Liu Xianzhu (Liu Xuande), the king of Shuhan, has very old and large peach trees in the back garden. It will be in full bloom about a month from now.”

Hearing the elder’s answer, I closed my eyes and slowly nodded my head, as if lost in a distant memory.

“Then, the ceremony should be held there.”

The elder from the Zhuge family, with a face full of anticipation, asked me.

“Why, why?”

“Lord Liu Xianzhu of Shuhan, along with his brothers, swore an oath of brotherhood under a peach tree and achieved great deeds together. Therefore, since the time of Lord Liu Xianzhu, oaths made under a peach tree are watched over by Lord Liu Xianzhu and his brothers. I also want to swear an oath under a peach tree... to ensure that this heart remains unchanged for life...”

As I finished speaking and gazed out the open window, a cheer echoed.

“Ohhh!”

“T-That’s...”

The martial artists from the Zhuge family and the Tang family, who had come with the elder, seemed to be overwhelmed by my words and started talking excitedly to me, as if a rock star had descended.

The atmosphere was boiling, and the hall was filled with enthusiasm.

“Indeed, as the head of our family said, you can recite the classics so well! To have such a person as part of our family!”

“Indeed, Qingyun has deep thoughts. A ceremony under a peach tree. If it carries such meaning, the head of the Zhuge family will surely like it.”

I nodded, receiving the elder’s praise and the uncle’s compliments.

There was a slight regret, though.

The Peach Garden Oath is traditionally a trio, and it would have been perfect if Tang Yingying joined us to perform the ceremony under the peach tree, with the peach blossoms swirling around us. But for now, it had to be a duo, which was a bit disappointing.

I thought I should talk to Tang Yingying later and suggest that we do it as a trio when we perform the ceremony at the Tang family.

‘Does the Tang family have a peach tree?’

Amidst the cheers, I ended the conversation and headed to my quarters, lost in thoughts of the trio ceremony, when Tang Yingying, who had followed me, asked a question in a somewhat dejected voice.

“Gaga, are you really that happy?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be? A ceremony under the peach tree of the Zhuge family. Isn’t it every man’s dream?”

I said excitedly as I walked.

“But isn’t it usually done with two people...”

As I was talking excitedly, I noticed a change in the atmosphere.

Looking around, I saw that Tang Yingying was nowhere to be found. She had said something in a dejected voice at the spot where we were just standing.

“See you tomorrow, Gaga.”

Then, she walked away with a dejected step.

She looked completely disheartened, and upon reflection, her dejection seemed to have started after the visit of the fraudulent fortune-teller.

‘Did some evil spirit attach itself to her? What should I write, 十 or 卍?’

I was deep in thought, wondering who to ask for a powerful talisman.

I realized that 卍 was not the main deity here.

‘Both?’

***

After parting with Liu Qingyun, Tang Yingying walked aimlessly in the back garden and then entered her room, feeling very conflicted.

At first, when Zimei, who had been brought to the Tang family for treatment, took out a bundle of grass from the market and said she had a fiancé, it was a bit surprising.

“Sister, look at this. This is his entry token. He gave this to me.”

“Entry token? What is it?”

I thought it might be a mysterious sect that used kitchen knives as entry tokens, but it turned out he was a regular person, a chef, not a martial artist.

“An entry token usually means being accepted as a member of a sect. I was very happy that he accepted me, despite my condition. After all, I look like this...”

“Well, if you’re happy, I’m happy too.”

I blessed her while Zimei was there, but after she left, worries started to rise in my heart.

‘Zimei is marrying into the Zhuge family. It’s clear that he wants to benefit from the Zhuge family’s prestige. I need to check what kind of person he is!’

It was fortunate that he was invited to Grandfather’s birthday party. I was curious about him and wanted to taste his cooking, so I volunteered to meet him.

During the journey, I could test whether he was a good or bad person by sticking close to him.

So, I tried to upset Liu Qingyun, ignore him, act mean, and pretend to be close to see how he would react. The problem was that the pretense of being close turned into something real without me noticing.

By the time I realized it, my heart was overflowing like a broken dam.

The courage of an ordinary man who had never practiced martial arts, making spicy food to stand up to Grandfather, the poison king.

His excellent skills shown at Grandfather’s birthday party.

His incredible wisdom in saving Father.

And his cheerful nature, always making things fun.

A strange man who didn’t follow unnecessary formalities but wasn’t rude.

Especially when he offered to teach me how to prepare scorpions, I even imagined, ‘Could he also like me?’

But he kept misunderstanding and pretending not to notice my hints.

Ah, it turned out he was a man with no sense of perception.

When he asked if I lacked perception, it was actually him.

I was heartbroken and felt like my heart would burst that night.

‘What should I do...?’

It was a night of worry about the content of the letter I had to send to Zimei through the elder of the Zhuge family, who was leaving the next day.

***

After the elder who brought the clothes left, about twenty days passed, and we started our journey to the Zhuge family.

The group included the head of the Tang family, my uncle by marriage, Tang Yingying, Tang Yingying’s aunt, and over a dozen martial artists.

The Tang family also prepared a carriage for me, who couldn’t use lightness skills, and a box full of pastries to feed Tang Yingying to her heart’s content.

A long journey of a little over a month from Sichuan through Shanxi to Hubei for the ceremony.

The journey was very smooth.

With over a dozen martial artists in clothes with the Tang family emblem guarding us, who would dare to challenge us?

After a little over a month, we arrived at Zhushan in Hubei and met the group from the Zhuge family who had been waiting for us.

Author's Note:

I have corrected the title of Liu Bei based on Song dynasty standards.

For the convenience of readers, I used the most common term, "King of Shuhan, Liu Bei," but I have changed it to "Lord Liu Xianzhu" (先主), the title used for Liu Bei during the Northern Song dynasty.

Liu Bei, the king of Shuhan, is referred to as "Lord Liu Xianzhu" (先主).

His son, Liu Shan, is referred to as "Lord Liu Houzhu" (后主).

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